DWD's Reviews

"He chose to live a bold life rather than settle for mediocrity" Published by Back Bay Books in 2006. "The only certainty about Columbus is that, for better or worse, he chose to live a bold life rather than settle for mediocrity." (p. 268) That is how Dugard ends a lively and informative biography of Christopher Columbus. As the title indicates, Dugard focuses on the fourth voyage of Columbus and its successes and mishaps. In order to properly place this voyage in its correct context, he uses the first half of the book to give the reader a fairly comprehensive biography of Columbus, as well as a thorough look at the politics of the day and other voyages of exploration, especially those of the Spanish and Portuguese. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Columbus has been a whipping boy for the politically correct crowd for decades now. Dugard does a solid job of putting Columbus's actions in their proper context without becoming an apologi

Should have been titled "S is for Slow" or "T is for Tedious" Published in 2004 by Random House Audio Read by Judy Kaye Duration: 11 hours, 33 minutes "Occasionally I'm simply a minor character in someone else's play." -Kinsey Millhone. "R is for Ricochet" really is an appropriate title for this one since, like a misfired bullet that bounces around and hits uninvolved bystanders, Kinsey gets caught up in a client's mess and nearly gets herself killed. Set in July of 1987, this is one really slow-developing book. Lots of detailed descriptions of Kinsey's clothing, her client's clothing, the bad guy's clothing, Kinsey's thought processes about her clothing choices, the clothing of the IRS agent in the story, the clothing of a witchy rich lady, the clothing of Kinsey's love interest, the clothing a stripper wears to work, shopping malls, the clothing they look at in the shopping mall, hotel

Thoroughly enjoyable, quick but thought-provoking read Published by New Beginnings Press in 2007 Inspired by Stein's "Nick and Jessica" column - a column that was copied and pasted and forwarded to millions of e-mails across the world. Stein has collected a series of columns from the years 1978-2006, mostly from the 1998-2005. Topics range from Elvis and the celebrity culture to Richard Nixon to current foreign policy to the widows and orphans of fallen soldiers to the deaths of his parents. Ben Stein Often profound and usually very funny, Stein usually has a gentle wit and tries to put a gentle spin on things. But, 2 or 3 of these essays demonstrate that Stein can be cutting (however, his cutting observations are correct) and those are all of the more powerful since they stand out from the norm. Although this is a relatively short book, Stein's essays about his parents are worth the price of the book all by themselves. If his comments about his father

This short story (Amazon's Kindle Store estimates its length to be about 32 print pages) is the tale of a North Korean tank commander named Choi Chung Ho in a future war against the Americans on a frozen planet. The North Koreans and the Chinese combined forces are taking a beating from an advancing formation of American tanks. There are four people in Choi Chung Ho's damaged tank and two are rookies. His under-gunned, practically crippled tank is the only thing that can prevent the American forces from completely sweeping the field. Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) The story of how Choi Chung Ho repairs his tank and goes back into the fight is interesting enough, but McCarthy spices things up by throwing in little tidbits like having the North Koreans cloning Kim Il Sung (the original member of the Kim family to rule North Korea) over and over again to lead North Korea. Kim Il Sung #58 is in charge now. It seems a little crazy at first, but then again, maybe not. North Korea

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks in September of 2006. A War Like No Other is classical historian Victor Davis Hanson's offering on the Peloponnesian War - the 27 year struggle between the Delian League (Athens and its allies) and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and its allies) that ran on and off again from 431 to 404 B.C. Hanson's book is perhaps also a "book like no other" if I may borrow a phrase. Despite the prominently placed quote for the New York Times on the front cover proclaiming that it is a contemporary retelling of the war, this is not a narrative history of the war. Rather, it does exactly what the subtitle promises - it tells the reader HOW the war was fought. It analyzes the techniques, the weapons, the strategies and the tactics but it is not a history per se. The book vaguely follows the course of the war, but often shifts backwards and forwards through the decades of the war and even before and after the war. Vic

  Mary DiNunzio is back for more. Published in 2004 by HarperCollins  Lisa Scottoline I have a soft spot for Lisa Scottoline. Many years ago I was working in a used book store when I ran across her first book, Everywhere that Mary Went and I loved it. We had two copies of that book and we must have re-sold them a dozen times after I started recommending them to people who asked for someone new to read. Pretty soon, Lisa Scottoline was one of our hottest items - we even special-ordered in some new copies! I like to think that I had a very, very small part in her success, even though the used book store is now defunct. Killer Smile continues on with several familiar themes in Scottoline's books. Once again Bennie Rosato's all female (with the exception of an office manager) law firm swings into action in a case involving the Italian neighborhods of Phialadelphia. Mary DiNunzio, Scottoline's original character is back with a pro bono case based in hi